A Journey's Link

Chapter 50 - Key

As the crowd continued its applause, Monsieur Pierre walked over and shook Serena's hand. "Congratulations," he said as a Klefki flew behind him. "Zat was remarkable." Serena bowed her head and thanked him for the compliment. The Klefki approached Serena and offered Monsieur Pierre a Princess Key, the Princess Key that Serena had won with her Pokemon.

Braixen and Pancham both cheered as Monsieur Pierre handed Serena the key with a warm smile. "Thank you so much," she said, gently grabbing the key from his gloved hands. "Alright, you two!" Serena exclaimed to her Pokemon beside her. "We just got our first Princess Key again!" The entire audience cheered during this entire ordeal, with Goh and Chloe trying to be the loudest.

Monsieur Pierre turned back to the audience. "Zat will be all for tonight's show! Don't forget ze next location of the Performance Showcase, which will be in Snowbelle City. Thank you for coming and have a good night!" After this announcement, the lights came on fully, showing Serena just how many people were in the audience. The other three Performers walked off stage, feeling a little sad about their loss but looking forward to future Showcases.

Miette walked over to Serena and looked at the Princess Key. "How do you feel?" She asked Serena, seeing the joy on Serena's face. She turned to Miette and said, "I feel happy for this win... but I don't know." She frowned as she thought about what she meant. There was no denying her happiness for winning the Princess Key, but something felt wrong.

Goh and Chloe ran up the stage towards the two Performers. "That was amazing!" Chloe exclaimed, running up to Serena and gazing in awe at the Princess Key. "You do deserve that key, Serena," she said, earning a small smile from Serena. "Thanks, Chloe," she said, getting used to the fact that she had a sort of personal fan.

"Must be exciting, huh?" Goh asked, nodding towards the key. "I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Performing, but this must be a pretty big achievement, isn't it?" Serena turned to Goh and responded, "Yeah it is. I feel great about it." She sounded unsure as she spoke, which Goh caught onto and smiled to himself.

"But there's more, isn't there?" He said knowingly. Serena nodded embarrassingly and said, "Miette told me everything about what happened at the clearing." Goh was off-put by Miette's choice to tell her and turned to her, asking, "Everything? Even the truth about you and Ash?"

Miette nodded and said, "Everything. I told her about my plan, which was to try to get Ash to realize how he felt for her." Chloe's eyes widened as she realized the true nature of Miette's plans. "I was right!" She exclaimed to Goh. "You didn't trust her, but I did! Look who was right!"

Goh lowered his head and wearily responded, "I guess so." He looked up at Miette and apologized. "I guess I didn't trust you after you told those lies, but I can now see why you told those lies. I'm sorry," he said genuinely. Miette shook her head and reassured Goh by saying, "You had every reason to not trust me, don't worry. I'm just glad you see things the way I do."

Goh smiled and shook his head, "It's no big deal, Miette. Why don't we forget about it and focus on the real issue at hand here." Miette raised her eyebrow. "Which is?" She asked, tilting her head.

Goh nodded towards Serena. "Ash," he said. "We've got to go find him." Serena took a deep breath and nodded, realizing that even though she wanted to get back to Performing as soon as possible, she was going to have to look for him as well. "I know," Miette piped up. "Why don't we just go to Snowbelle City where the next Showcase is going to be. Then we can look around that area for Ash there."

Everyone thought about it and ultimately agreed, with Goh saying, "There's no way of knowing where he's at, so we might as well go to the next place we can. I'm going to video call Professor Cerise at the Pokemon Center to tell him that I'm going to be conducting some research in the Kalos region for the time being." He looked at Chloe. "You coming along?" He asked, knowing that Chloe would probably want to tell her dad what she planned on doing.

Chloe smiled and nodded. "I can tell him about my decision. I might want to try Performing, so he'll definitely want to know that," she said, feeling confident in her choice in life. Serena and Miette looked at each other and smiled, glad to see another friend joining them in Performances. "Great!" Goh exclaimed. "We should probably get going, then," he added, heading down the steps and gesturing to Chloe to follow him.

"We'll both come along, too," Serena said, referring to her and Miette. "I want to call my mom and let her know what's going on, and maybe some old friends that I used to travel with within the Kalos region, too." She was, of course, talking about Clemont and Bonnie, unknowing that they were both with Ash at that very moment, getting ready to head to Ninja Village.

"What does Snowbelle City even look like?" Goh asked, pulling his phone to research. He hadn't brought his snow clothing, so when he saw the absolute blizzard that was Snowbelle City, he yelped and instantly exclaimed, "I've got to go prepare right now!", and began running towards the entrance. Everyone else laughed and followed him, heading towards their next destination and Chloe's first Performance.

[-]

"All set?" Clemont asked Ash, who strapped on his backpack and gave Clemont a thumbs up. "Yup," Ash replied. "I've got everything," he said. Clemont gave Ash a small smile and continued watching as Ash returned Greninja and Lucario to their Pokeballs. He was worried about Ash's well-being since he had been in a coma the day before, but he was insistent that he was fine.

After Ash had explained that they needed to find Squishy quickly, Sycamore, Clemont, and Bonnie had all persisted in making sure Ash was okay. "Seriously, I'm good guys," he had repeated for the umpteenth time. "Look, even Greninja and Lucario and getting along just fine." Even though they had their doubts, this was true. Both Pokemon had woken up without an issue and were hitting it off extremely well, most likely because they were already bonded together.

"Fine," Sycamore had sighed. "But if anything comes up that may relate to this, let me know immediately. Got it?" He gave Ash a stern look as he said so, leading Ash to obediently nod and repeat, "Got it."

Ash and the siblings went back to Prism Tower to ensure they had packed everything for their trip to Ninja Village. Sycamore had promised Ash that they could cancel the trip at any time to go look for Squishy, but he had honestly told the Professor that he didn't know Squishy's exact whereabouts, so going to train at the village was the next best thing they could do.

"I hope we get to see Sanpei again," Clemont remarked as Ash turned around. "After all, we are meeting with the chief, who just so happens to be his brother." Ash nodded and smiled. "That would be great," he said. "I could see how strong he is now!" He exclaimed, getting more amped up for the trip by the second. Clemont chuckled at Ash's fiery nature and turned to Bonnie.

"What about you, Bonnie? Are you excited?" Clemont asked his younger sister, who was sitting on a chair and gazing off into the distance. "Bonnie?" Clemont repeated, walking over to her. Bonnie sighed with a frown and said, "I just hope Squishy's okay." She turned to Ash and asked, "You said you spoke with him, right?" Ash nodded with a serious face.

"So he's in danger, right?" She then added, being met with a cautious nod. "But he's okay for right now?" Ash sighed. "From what he told me, he's doing fine for right now. But those clones that you told me about are talking about some plan from some master, so we just need to be prepared for anything that might come our way."

Clemont and Bonnie both nodded, with Bonnie standing up and exclaiming passionately, "Then let's go train and get ready to fight the mean bad guys!" Ash smiled at Bonnie's passion, knowing that she would be a fierce trainer one day. "Right!" Clemont exclaimed, mimicking his sister's energy. Ash nodded at both of them and grinned. "Let's go meet up with Sycamore and head towards Ninja Village!" He exclaimed, running past them and out of Prism Tower towards his destiny.